America isn’t one story. It’s a layered and diverse array of identities, individual and collective, forged on contradictory realities that are imbued with and denied privilege and power. Our obsession with the Great American Novel is perhaps evidence of the even greater truth that it’s impossible for one to exist. As Americans, we keep looking anyway.

Gerritsen worked for 13 weeks over the course of three years on the project. He’d spend all day underground, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., shooting tirelessly. “I wanted to shoot every book in those three years,” he said. “I shot thousands of books. Every time I saw someone with a book, I took a photo.”

Great collection of photos (and a documentation of the favorite subway hobby of every bookish New Yorker).

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